Dreams that Hardly Touched
by suriru
Summary: (one-shot) SF. A random between-episode occurrence.


**Dreams that Hardly Touched**

She never thought too much of him before.

He was just there to remind her of her dining etiquette and to humor her with sarcasm nearly as cynical as her own. They weren't enemies or comrades. If that was even relevant she didn't care, but she had a problem not knowing which side he was on. At times he was offensive and other times it didn't matter, she kind of enjoyed hearing his voice when he wasn't saying anything important.

Something changed over time and she didn't know who to blame for it. Maybe it was just being alone for so long that it all happened. Yeah. It was the solitude.

The first time she had stared at him excessively and he noticed, even though his back was turned to her. He had a sixth sense for that sort of thing, but then he had a sixth sense for everything. By the time he turned his head to meet her burning eyes, she had reverted back to painting her toe nails the shade of pink that made him look away.

The feeling was one that couldn't be put into words. It was similar trying to explain to Ed what the meaning of life was. Faye assigned a few thought-out statements as explanation, things like, "It's hard to say, Ed. It's different for everyone, really." But like in all other cases, she didn't know the truth any more than the kid did.

She got up to leave Ed typing away on the metal table, only to pass Spike, slouched over by the wall.

The embarrassment washed over her lightly. He was always listening in on her lately, catching on to simple dialogue he'd store and piece together later on to find something about her he never intended to find out in the first place. They were usually either credible lies or truths that were hard to believe. First she was a gypsy and then she was some sort of frozen anachronism swimming in debt- he had to hand it to her for having such an interesting lifestyle.

But that was the past.

Now there was the simple life of bounty hunting. Hell, it wasn't all that simple. Things had a way of getting more complicated than they had to be.

&&

Jet sent them to do some grocery shopping on Ganymede on a hot day at the end of June. With both of their ships broken and in delayed repair, they rented a car by the dock and drove the rest of the way to the end of the city. The end because the farther they were from the center of the city, the cheaper the prices were. They had found the mini-market successfully, which was conveniently by the gas station. As Spike filled the tank with the self-service pump, Faye crossed the street to start off the shopping.

Upon entering, a chime tinkled lightly and Faye cringed at the noise. She hurried to the back where the freezers were. Sliding the door, she picked a bottle of lemonade and drank it all within two seconds.

"I hope you're paying for that with your own money," Spike commented as he glanced at the piece of paper he had pulled out of Faye's pocket. "It's not on the list."

_He never ceases to surprise me. _

Faye licked her lips, her thirst quenched. "Yeah yeah, I'm paying for it." She went to the front and came back with a basket, which they both started filling up with all the necessities Jet had written down. An hour later, they were pretty much done with shopping and checked out at the front. Faye watched him from the corner of her eye, handing his money card to the brunette and flirting with her casually.

"Lovely day, isn't it?"

After he paid, they threw the groceries in the back seat of the rental.

"What time is it now?" Faye asked him, yawning.

He squinted at the sun and brought a hand up to shield his eye. "I don't have a watch, but it's probably around two in the afternoon."

"So we still have time, right? Jet said we had to be there by five." She got into the car.

"And what exactly are you planning to do until then?" Spike asked, sliding into the driver's seat.

Faye slipped on her sunglasses. "I want to take you somewhere."

He chuckled lightly. "Sure, take me anywhere you want."

She glared. "I'm being serious."

"Then why are you laughing?"

Faye stuck out her tongue. "Just let me drive, moron."

"Fine, no complaints here, Faye," He said, grinning as they switched places.

The river was shining as they both got out of the car. They sat on the dirt of the river bed together, sitting close but not touching. Listening to the soft trickling of the water, the day didn't turn out as bad as they thought it would.

"I thought you were taking me somewhere more exciting," he thought out loud.

Faye frowned. "You're hard to please. And what exactly do you mean by 'exciting', anyway?" She huffed and a few specks of dust flew into his face.

Coughing, he turned to the water. "You're bad at hiding things." Spike paused, turning to look at her with one eye. "I know it's your birthday."

Her face reddened. "God. I really am that predictable, huh?"

"Yeah."

She furrowed her eyebrow. "You don't have to be so damn agreeable all the time. You really annoy me, Spike."

"I highly doubt that." He reached into his pocket and tossed Faye a fresh pack of cigarettes. "That was all I could afford."

She caught it and looked up at him. _Did he buy this at the convenience store?_ _I didn't notice then._

"It's the thought that counts." She suddenly felt like doing something affectionate toward him but didn't know what. He was just going to laugh about it afterwards but right now that didn't matter.

Faye leaned in confidently and aimed for his cheek, but ended up kissing the side of his mouth. "Uh. I hadgood intentions," She said quietly, pulling away.

Spike smiled crookedly. "I'm sure you did."

They stayed there until the sun began to set and it was evident that they were going to be late.


End file.
